OTTAWA ­-- A U.S. army lawyer says he's ready to give Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr a "zealous defence" against charges of murder, spying and being a terrorist -- even if Khadr doesn't want his help.

Last week, Khadr, a 23-year-old man born in Toronto who is accused of the 2002 murder in Afghanistan of a U.S. Army medic, told a judge at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Station, Cuba, that he thought the special process set up to try terror suspects like him was a sham and that he wanted to fire all his lawyers.

"I'm going to get a life sentence either way. I'm boycotting this process," Khadr told judge Col. Patrick Parrish last week.

Nevertheless, Parrish ordered the equivalent of court-appointed counsel to continue to work on his behalf.

But in court last week, that counsel, U.S. Army Lt.-Col. Jon Jackson said that he was in a tricky ethical position and that he needed to consult his own supervisors and the bar in his home state of Arkansas on this key question: Should a lawyer mount a vigorous defence even if his client wants no defence to be mounted?